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We had a brief downpour yesterday morning and I just couldn’t resist getting some garden photos as soon as the rain stopped. This is one of my favorites. It is of a pale pink lily, stained by the pollen splattered on its petals.

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Last year someone gave a potted Easter Lily to a friend of mine. After it was done blooming, my friend didn’t want it anymore. So she gave the lily to me and I planted it in my garden. I wasn’t sure whether it would come back this year because it didn’t look very vigorous when I received it; but it did come back and it just started blooming. Its fragrance is equal to its beauty. I wish that I could include some of its scent in this post to share with you. Have a lovely day!

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Asiatic Lily “Kiss Me Kate” – named, I assume after the Cole Porter musical – is the standout in my garden this week. I planted the “Kate” bulbs in 2000 and they are still producing beautifully every year. This year, however, we had unusually cool weather for early June – that is, until yesterday afternoon when our official temperature was 99 degrees F. As a result, I had the opportunity to observe that the blooms that opened during the cooler temperatures had much darker coloration than those that opened on warmer days. Kiss Me Kate is a bicolor lily often described as being magenta and creamy yellow. Mine are usually a mauvish-pink turning to salmon-pink at the border of the yellow centers; and just this year did I see a few that were close to red on the outer edges. I have 5 groupings of the Kates, standing at about 3 feet tall. In early morning and early evening light, the colors look like those of the sunset.

Sunday was a busy day. Fortunately, I was able to make it to the local garden tour organized by Riley County (Kansas) Extension Master Gardeners. I was only able to visit three of the wonderful gardens before having to make it home to check-in guests, but I did get some nice photos that I hope you will enjoy! (By the way, if anyone has suggestions as to how to present the photos in my posts, I am open to advice. I had received some comments early on in my blog that my photos took too long to load. So I have been saving them as smaller files, but sometimes they appear a little grainy.)